Genesis 48:1-22 - Exposition

Jacob's dying utterances.

I. AN OLD MAN 'S SICK - BED . "It came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick." In this the venerable patriarch—

1. Suffered an experience that is common to all . For nearly three half-centuries had this weather-beaten pilgrim been able to maintain himself erect amid the numberless vicissitudes of life. Strong, healthy, vigorous, and active too, he appears to have been until now, notwithstanding the peculiarly trying and checkered career through which he had passed. But all the while, the rolling years, as they glided softly by, had been touching him with their invisible fingers, and leaving on him their ineffaceable impressions, imperceptibly but surely relaxing his corded muscles, whitening and diminishing his manly locks, loosening his joints, making his step less lithe and firm, and generally draining away his strength. And now, at length, he had arrived where all men must, sooner or later, come, if they have a death-bed at all, no matter how bright may be their eye, or how ruddy their countenance, or how stalwart their frame, or how Herculean their strength, to that period of infirmity and sickness that precedes dissolution.

2. Enjoyed a privilege accorded to few. Immediately that he had fallen sick, a messenger, dispatched from Goshen, carried tidings to the vice-regal palace in the great metropolis, and Joseph, his beloved son, accompanied by his two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, at once descended to express his sympathy and lend his aid. Not to many is it granted, in this world of separations and bereavements, to have all their family around them when they breathe their last, or to have their Josephs even, to put their hands upon the sinking eyelids, and gently close them in the sleep of death. Venerable pilgrim! Much afflicted in thy riper years, thou wast greatly comforted in thy latter days.

II. AN OLD PILGRIM 'S REMINISCENCES . Learning of Joseph's arrival, the aged father musters his rapidly failing strength, and, recognizing within his withered bosom the stirrings of the old prophetic spirit, prepares himself, by sitting upright in his bed, for delivering whatever communication should be put into his trembling lips. Casting his thoughts back upon the past with that fond delight with which the aged recall the story of their younger years, he relates to Joseph—

1. How El Shaddai had appeared to him at Luz, or Bethel, in the land of Canaan, as he returned from Mesopotamia.

2. What God had promised him on that memorable occasion, that he should grow into a multitude of people, who should eventually possess the land, adding by way of parenthesis, at this stage, that in view of that inheritance to come he intended to adopt the sons of Joseph as his own; and—

3. The great affliction that had happened to him almost immediately after in the loss of Rachel, Joseph's mother, to whose premature death and affecting burial "in the way of Ephrath" the old man, even at that long distance of time, cannot refer without emotion. "As for me, Rachel died upon me in the land of Canaan in the way."

III. AN OLD SAINT 'S BLESSING . It is probable that, though Jacob had already referred to Joseph's sons, he had not yet been conscious of their presence, for "the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see." At length, however, discerning unfamiliar forms in the chamber, and ascertaining they were Ephraim and Manasseh, he proceeds to give them his patriarchal benediction.

1. The actions of the patriarch .

2. The contents of the blessing .

IV. AN OLD PROPHET 'S PREDICTION . Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again into the land of your fathers."

1. The time when it was uttered . When Jacob was on the eve of death. It is not at all improbable that the soul's vision of unseen (celestial and future) things becomes clearer as the obscuring veil of this mortal flesh wears thin; but the power of apprehending things to come, which Jacob in this instance displayed, was not due to such intensified spiritual penetration. Neither is it necessary to suppose that he received at this moment any special supernatural communication. Simply, he directed his dying gaze to the sure word of promise.

2. The substance of what it said . It announced nothing more than God already promised, viz; that he would continue with Jacob's descendants in Egypt, and eventually bring them up again to Canaan.

3. T he guarantee to which it pointed . This was implicitly contained in the expression, "the land of your fathers." Canaan had been given in covenant to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and hence of necessity it would ultimately be restored to their seed according to the terms of the covenant.